From The Times
December 6, 2008Pentagon plans troop surge in Afghanistan

Tim Reid in Washington
The Pentagon has begun a massive building operation to construct new barracks and facilities in Afghanistan for 20,000 extra US troops that will pour into the country early next year.

The surge of additional forces, to combat the perilous and rapidly deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, comes amid growing tensions between the US and Britain over the possible deployment of extra UK troops - and the performance of British soldiers already there.

There are 8,100 British troops in Afghanistan, mostly deployed in the southern Helmand province, where the Taleban insurgency has been the most fierce and effective. The US has had to send forces south to bolster the British and Canadian contingents, amid growing allegations among American military officials that the British have not effectively taken the fight to the enemy.

Three Canadian troops were killed on Friday by a roadside bomb outside the southern city of Kandahar, and on Thursday two Danish soldiers were killed.

The huge construction programme, which is already so detailed that the Pentagon has plans down to the last latrine and billet, was announced on Friday by Major General Michael Tucker, the deputy US commander in Afghanistan. It is to house the 20,000 extra troops, who will be joining the 32,000 American forces already there. General Tucker refused to say where the new facility will be
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